I am a lucky longarm quilter! How so? I received another beautiful vintage Double Wedding Ring top to quilt for my customer Terri. She got the top from her daughter in law, it was made by her DIL's mother and never quilted. I believe it was pieced in Texas, but I don't know exactly when. I was charmed by the vintage feedsack prints and the quality of the piecing. It had stood the test of time well, and was ready to be brought into the world and finished.
I quilted it using my Double Path method. The first pass flows (ribbon candy) from the lower horizontal arc to the far right intersection with the horizontal small melon. The melon is quilted with a swirl out and back. Stitching continues on the flowered pieces of the four patch center with some traveling and then to the next lower arc section. The second path begins at the green piece of the center four patch, goes up the left side of the vertical arc (ribbon candy) to the green patch above, then down the right side of the vertical arc (ribbon candy) to the intersection with the vertical melon. The vertical melon is quilted with the same out and back swirl motif. Stitching continues out to the next upper horizontal arc (ribbon candy), which then flows to the intersection with the white center square at the lower right corner. The center square was divided into four quadrants using water soluble blue pen, and quilted with an echo (Quilted Pineapple curve ruler, number 20). I feathered the center square and exited at the lower right corner. The flow begins again at the next green four patch.
Here are some detail pictures. See if you can trace the path.
This picture shows the setup to quilt the echoes in the center square. You can see my blue marks in the center that help me line up my ruler correctly.
Here's the back - I love the texture! For thread, I chose Innovatech cream for the top and in the bobbin I used Glide prewounds PremoSoft in cream. I love prewound bobbins for the improved stitch quality they deliver.
What I love about this method is that I can quilt accurately and quickly. The ribbon candy is forgiving and serves almost as well as stitch in the ditch to stabilize the arcs. The piecing in the center four patch was the only area that had some puckers and weirdness, but the swoopy lines and occasional traveling stitching tamed these areas nicely. Here's a closeup.
Finally, a few more pics of the finished quilt. I know Terri will enjoy giving it to her daughter-in-law as a tribute to her mom, the talented piecer of yesterday. I'm so glad to have helped in the process... and Terri will enjoy binding it on her way back to Texas next week.